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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26759344">Everyone Needs a Hug</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starlight_fallen/pseuds/Starlight_fallen'>Starlight_fallen</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Flufftober 2020 [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman &amp; Terry Pratchett</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Aziraphale Loves Crowley (Good Omens), Crowley Loves Aziraphale (Good Omens), Fluff, Flufftober 2020, Ineffable Husbands (Good Omens), M/M, Small bit of angst, Touch-Starved</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 13:20:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>981</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26759344</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starlight_fallen/pseuds/Starlight_fallen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Heaven used to always be full of love. Touches were given freely, always conveying love, gentleness, caring, and all other Heavenly feelings. </p>
<p>Until the Great War, that is. </p>
<p>After that, none of the remaining angels bothered because it only brought pain when half of the Heavenly Host was ripped from them. </p>
<p>Aziraphale has spent over 6000 years not feeling any kind of touch. He’s gone out of his way to avoid touching Crowley until the bus ride back to London after the Apoca-wasn’t. He didn’t realize how much he missed touch until that moment. It took his entire self to let go of Crowley’s hand when they returned to London. </p>
<p>Crowley, until that bus ride, had only felt touch when fighting off other demons in Hell. Since coming to Earth, the only touches he felt was when he was raising Warlock, and oh how he loved that little boy. But holding the hand of his angel, that was all the best parts of Heaven all over again.</p>
<p>After the failed execution attempts, neither one knows how to tell the other that they’d give almost anything just to touch the other.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aziraphale &amp; Crowley (Good Omens), Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Flufftober 2020 [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1949617</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>63</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Everyone Needs a Hug</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>It’s October!! I cannot write smut to save my life (at least enough to participate in Kinktober lol) so I am full on participating in Giucorreias’s Tumblr prompts for Flufftober!! I’m going to be doing little one-shots for each prompt this month, roughly 1000-2000 words. </p>
<p>Prompt 1: Touch</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“To the world.” </p>
<p>Aziraphale’s smile added a bright light to the softly lit room at the Ritz. Crowley loved that gentle smile, loved that it was so freely and easily given now that their home offices were going to pretend they didn’t exist. </p>
<p>Crowley continued to watch Aziraphale as he ate, talking animatedly about his trial down in Hell. He couldn’t keep the smile from his face, loving every second of Aziraphale’s jubilation. </p>
<p>“I asked Michael for a rubber duck!” The angel laughed again, forgetting he’d mentioned it to the Crowley on the bench earlier that day. Crowley threw his head back in joy at the cheekiness of his angel. </p>
<p>When he leaned forward, he unconsciously reached out across the table, placing his hand on Aziraphale’s. Both angel and demon froze as it felt like time completely stopped too. </p>
<p>It took a few tense seconds for Aziraphale to flip his palm up and interlace their hands like they had when they’d been on the bus leaving Tadfield. </p>
<p>Neither let go of the others hands as they left the Ritz. </p>
<p>__________________________</p>
<p>Crowley hesitated when they got to the bookshop. He wasn’t wholly sure he could face the bookshop just yet, but he knew Aziraphale was dying to see it again after being told it’d burnt to the ground 24 hours previously. He knew Aziraphale was happy and he’d be damned again if it meant taking even a second’s joy from his angel. So he’d have to be brave, for Aziraphale’s sake. </p>
<p>Aziraphale practically vibrated with joy, seeing his beautiful bookshop back to it’s longstanding glory. It was certainly less dusty than he’d left it the day before, but that wasn’t exactly a bad thing either. He still held Crowley’s hand in his, secretly loving the coolness from it. </p>
<p>“Oh I’m so happy that my books are okay!” Aziraphale exclaimed, turning to face Crowley and his smile instantly dropping. </p>
<p>Crowley tried to hide the trembling, but the memories of believing Aziraphale dead was flashing through his mind and he couldn’t stop it. He tried suppressing the sob working it’s way up his throat but it was stronger than Crowley felt in that moment. </p>
<p>“Y..yo-you were dead. G-gone! I couldn’t-couldn’t sense you anymore.” Crowley sobbed, shoulders hunching around his ears. </p>
<p>Aziraphale felt his heart stop, seeing all the pain Crowley was in. He didn’t even think about it, so desperate to comfort his love that he just pulled Crowley into his arms for a hug. </p>
<p>Crowley let out an inhuman wail at the contact, causing Aziraphale to instantly let go and jump back, terrified beyond belief that he’d somehow hurt Crowley. Crowley lunged forward, wrapping his arms tightly around Aziraphale, sobs still steadily falling from his lips as he begged Aziraphale to not leave him. </p>
<p>Aziraphale stood frozen. It’d been so long, so very very long, since anyone had touched him, let alone hugged him. It was understandable his whole brain stopped working in the moment. When it rebooted a few milliseconds later, hearing Crowley’s desperate cries to not leave him, that he wrapped his arms around the demon again. They stood there holding each other for what seemed like hours, Crowley’s sobs slowly dying away, to be replaced with him whispering promises of never letting anyone hurt Aziraphale again. He felt himself coming back from his emotional outburst, the physical touch of Aziraphale grounding him, reminding him that the angel was there and safe and alive. </p>
<p>It felt oddly good to let the emotions out, knowing Aziraphale was there and didn’t judge him for them. </p>
<p>He was completely unaware of the tears streaming silently down Aziraphale’s face. </p>
<p>They pulled apart slightly, just enough for Crowley to see that Aziraphale was crying too. </p>
<p>“Angel, what’s wrong? Did I hurt you? Is it hurting you to be touching me?” Crowley started frantically asking. He started to pull himself away from Aziraphale, only to feel Aziraphale tighten his hold on him, refusing to let him go. Crowley was taken aback slightly by Aziraphale’s strength for a moment before he remembered that Aziraphale had, at one point, been a warrior. He wrapped his arms back around Aziraphale, feeling him sag into his embrace. Aziraphale took the moment to bury his face in Crowley’s neck, hiding his face and mumbling his voice. </p>
<p>“Angel, please talk to me.” Crowley whispered. </p>
<p>The angel stood quiet for a minute or two before he shuddered, pulling away slightly so that his whispered response could be heard.  </p>
<p>“It’s...it’s uhhh been a very long time since anyone has hugged me or even touched me.” Aziraphale mumbled, keeping his head buried as close to crowley as he could. </p>
<p>Crowley didn’t know how to react to that. Aziraphale was just as touch starved as he is! If he’d have known, he would have been showering aziraphale in hugs for millennia. </p>
<p>No. He knew the angel never would have allowed that. Not while their respective head offices were watching them. Crowley knew that the only reason Aziraphale wasn't panicking was because Heaven had given up with regards to Aziraphale. </p>
<p>“Oh angel. I know how you’re feeling. I didn’t mean to scare you when you first hugged me. It was the first time in a long time for me as well.” Crowley explained, pulling Aziraphale back into his tightened embrace. </p>
<p>Aziraphale laughed a little bit, tightening his hold on Crowley too. </p>
<p>“We certainly make a pair, don’t we, dear?” </p>
<p>Crowley huffed a laugh and tightened his hold even more on Aziraphale. </p>
<p>“Yep but we are our own pair, angel.” </p>
<p>“Our side.” Aziraphale mumbled back, sinking further into Crowley’s embrace. </p>
<p>Crowley couldn’t stop himself, he dipped his head and kissed the halo of gentle curls atop Aziraphale’s head. He froze the moment he realized what his body did. </p>
<p>Aziraphale went rigid, letting the millennia of fear surface before he remembered himself. </p>
<p>“I love you too, my dear.”</p>
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